AMHERST, N.Y. – The No. 3 Daemen University men's basketball team improved to 8-0 with a 74-64 victory over Clarion on Saturday. The Wildcats boosted their home record to 4-0 inside Lumsden Gymnasium. Daemen has won 39 consecutive regular season contests, dating back to February 2024. It was a perfect 25-0 in regular season play last year.
 
Four Wildcats tallied double-digit points in the victory and combined for 58 of Daemen's 74 total points. The Wildcats shot 56% (31-of-55) from the field despite knocking down just 1-of-15 triples. They outscored the Golden Eagles 60-32 in the paint and 15-8 on second chance points.
 
IMPACT PLAYERS

• Redshirt junior Benjamin Bill (Hamburg, N.Y), an All-American and the ECC Player of the Year last season, recorded a game-high 19 points while going 8-of-8 from the floor. Bill did not miss a field goal while attempting at least eight for the second time in his career. He went a perfect 12-of-12 against Roberts Wesleyan last season. The ECC Preseason Player of the Year has scored in double figures in 19 consecutive contests dating back to last season.
• Guard Zach Philipkoski (New Hartford, N.Y.) followed with 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting and notched Daemen's lone triple of the contest. The junior boasted a game-high and season-high 11 rebounds. Philipkoski reached double-digit boards for the fourth time in his career.
• Redshirt senior Justin Hemphill (Buffalo, N.Y.) added 12 points. The forward posted a game-high seven assists, plus a season-best nine rebounds. Hemphill's seven helpers tied his season high. He also racked up seven against Lenoir-Rhyne on Nov. 1. The redshirt senior had secured seven or more assists three times in his career prior to this year, all of which came last season.
• Junior guard Ryan Heath (Rochester, N.Y.) also contributed 12 points as well as a season-high tying five rebounds. Heath went 6-of-10 from the floor, marking the fifth time this year that he has shot over 50% on field goals out of his eight appearances.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Daemen claimed the early edge. The Wildcats raced out to a 16-9 lead after seven minutes of play, led by Hemphill who posted six quick points and by Bill who recorded the first four tallies of the contest. Daemen went 7-of-11 from the field in that stretch.
• That nine-point lead was as large as Daemen's first half advantage grew. Clarion cut its deficit to two with just under three minutes to play in the period (33-31). A 6-0 run by the Wildcats, which came courtesy of three buckets by Heath, ballooned Daemen's lead back to eight but the Golden Eagles managed to cut it to six (39-33) before the half expired.
• The Wildcats dominated the first five minutes of the second frame. Daemen outscored Clarion 12-5 and increased its lead to 13 (51-38). However, the Golden Eagles responded by orchestrating an 11-3 run in the ensuing four minutes of game time to shrink the gap to five points (54-49), the smallest it had been since the late stages of the first half.
• Daemen took control of the game over the following five minutes. A 13-0 Wildcats run made it 67-49 with six minutes to play. Eighteen points ended up being the Wildcats' largest advantage of the contest. That surge was aided by six points from Bill and five from Philipkoski, Daemen's top two scorers of the game and of the season thus far. Clarion could not manage to cut the margin to single digits again and the Wildcats closed out a 74-64 victory, their sixth double-digit win of the year.

GAME NOTES

• Daemen moved up one spot to No. 3 in the latest NABC coaches' poll, the first one released since the season began. The Wildcats returned 13 players from last year's 28-1 squad.
• The Wildcats were picked to finish first in the East Coast Conference preseason poll for the third time in the last four years.
• Today marked the sixth all-time meeting between Daemen and Clarion. The Wildcats improved to 4-2 in the series and have won four straight, including a Clarion forfeit in 2001. The programs have met three times since 2022 and Daemen has triumphed on each occasion.
• Daemen shot 56% from the floor against Clarion, the Wildcats' second-best mark of the campaign. Daemen posted a 58% clip in its win over Alaska Anchorage on Nov. 2.
• The Wildcats dished out 18 assists as a team compared to 10 by the Golden Eagles. Daemen has had more assists than its opponent in all but one game this year.
• Daemen kept Clarion to 64 points, marking the fifth time that the Wildcats have held an opponent to 64 or fewer out of eight games this season. Daemen's season low in terms of points allowed was 62 against Alaska Anchorage. Adversaries have managed to crack the 70-point plateau just twice against the Wildcats' defense.
• Daemen outrebounded Clarion 39-19. The Wildcats' +20 rebounding margin was their best of the season. Nineteen boards are the fewest a Daemen opponent has achieved this year. The Wildcats have won the rebounding battle in seven of eight contests.

UP NEXT
Daemen returns to action on Dec. 5 when it hosts Queens at 7:30 p.m., marking the beginning of ECC play. The Wildcats are 21-4 all-time against the Knights and have won four straight matchups. Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.
 
Follow the Daemen University men's basketball program on Twitter and Facebook at @DaemenMBB.